How is the Morgan Hill real estate market? Signals indicate it is an active seller’s market, but noticeably milder than other parts of the county. Overall the wild extremes of last spring are no more. Below are some quick points from our RE Report (link below).
The average sale price for houses in August was $1,656,210 (+11.6% from the month before and +9.2% from a year ago)
The median sale price for single family homes was $1,460,000 (-2.0% from the month prior and +8.2% from this time last year)
The sales to list price ratio for homes shrank to 99.0% (-2.9% from the month before and -0.1% from last year).
Days on market more than doubled month-over-month, averaging 34 days, which is almost a week slower than last year, but still a quick turnover.
It’s still a seller’s market with plenty of competition for the best homes.
The cities of Morgan Hill and Gilroy usually experience a lower demand than other parts of Santa Clara County which are either tech magnets, closer to big businesses, or a quicker commute around the Bay Area. So if most of the Silicon Valley has a sale price to list price ratio of anywhere from 105% to 110%, it’s generally lower here, making the home buying conditions calmer for weary buyers, though still a sellers market.
Now let’s get into the data.
First up, the market profile from Altos Research – this is updated weekly, so check back often! You can also view the weekly newsletter through the link below, where you can also subscribe to receive this update every week in your inbox. Prefer a particular zip code instead? You can type in your desired zip in the “Search Anywhere” line and then request that particular weekly update by email.
Please note that Altos uses information on actively listed homes for sale, not closed sale data. If you compare the days on market of the active listings with the days on market of the sold properties, they will be different.
Trends at a Glance for Single Family Homes in Morgan Hill
Month-over-month August closed sales and active inventory have slipped, as has the sales to list price ratio, and while pending sales grew dramatically. Overall it looks like things may have cooled slightly, but with all those pending sales next month might tell a different story. No doubt it’s still a clear seller’s market, but compared to other parts of the county it’s easier for buyers to get their foot in the door here in south county.
Looking year-over-year, the market is looking fairly similar to what it was in 2022, but with higher prices, fewer available listings, and far fewer sales.
Trends At a Glance
Aug 2023
Previous Month
Year-over-Year
Median Price
$1,460,000 (-2.0%)
$1,490,000
$1,349,950 (+8.2%)
Average Price
$1,656,210 (+11.6%)
$1,483,780
$1,516,320 (+9.2%)
No. of Sales
18 (-30.8%)
26
43 (-58.1%)
Pending
31 (+82.4%)
17
52 (-40.4%)
Active
40 (-13.0%)
46
56 (-28.6%)
Sale vs. List Price
99.0% (-2.9%)
101.9%
99.1% (-0.1%)
Days on Market
34 (+125.2%)
15
28 (+21.6%)
Days of Inventory
67 (+25.6%)
53
39 (+70.6%)
Single Family Home Live charts from Altos Research(more…)
Terra Mia at Mission Ranch in Morgan Hill is a newer residential community of 85 single family homes built between 2013 and 2017 by Dividend Homes. Terra Mia is set on the northern end of town, not far from Cochrane Road, with views of the El Toro peak in the distance. The neighborhood enjoys a couple of parks, tennis courts, a basketball court, sidewalks, underground utilities, and fabulous convenience to a Starbucks, shops, restaurants and even a walk in medical clinic. It is also within the Nordstrom Elementary attendance area – a huge draw.
Above: scenic El Toro (the volcanic like conical hill) is seen in the distance. On the other side, unseen, are the east foothills or the Calaveras range.
Homes at Terra Mia at Mission Ranch are one and two stories with a Mediterranean, Craftsman, or other contemporary style of architecture. Home come with 3 to 5 bedrooms and the sizes range between 1,567 – 3,709 square feet, and lot sizes span 4,100 – 9,047 SF.
You’ll see stucco exteriors, tile roofs, arches, and other accents reminiscent of the Mediterranean style, and other types, too. (more…)
Last Father’s Day, mid June 2017, we trekked to South County to do some fruit picking and fruit tasting at Andy’s Orchard in Morgan Hill. I highly recommend it, though the website for Andy’s Orchard says that their cherry harvest has been smaller than usual this year. They are again offering this event on Father’s Day 2018, but do check their website (see link below) to make sure that the tour you want is not sold out.
We walked through the orchard during the earliest available time slot since it was a heat wave weekend. The orchard had all kinds of varieties of cherries (I remember one with a funny name, the Black Republicans), but also pluats, nectarines, and a wide number of stone fruits, too. We were encouraged to taste as we went, and had no trouble complying. Many of us had buckets that we filled (and paid for the fruit later). It was so interesting to try one type of cherry after the next and to learn about how the trees are cared for.
Next was the open air tasting station, where we were able to enjoy and compare a huge number of apricots, peaches, nectarines, pluats, apriums, cherries, etc. Had we known when we walk the orchard how much more food would be there for us, we might all have had a little more restraint. By the time we got to the tasting stations, I was already pretty full and well past the amount of fruit I should have had for that period of time.
Take a look at some of the photos to give you a sense of the vast offerings! What it does not well convey is how delicious the fruit was!
We picked a variety of cherries, many types of which we’d never heard of before.
After that, we headed to a covered area (the shade was much appreciated as it was a toasty day) to check out the fruit tasting stations. Included were plums, pluats, apricots, nectarines, cherries, and all sorts of hybrids that were new to me.
Closeup of one of the fruits offered for tasting. In most cases, the fruit was presented in whole AND pre-sliced for easy munching.
And here’s a shot of the whole fruit and the samples.
Can’t wait to take visiting relatives back there!
You can learn more about Andy’s Orchard and check out their event schedule at their website: https://andysorchard.com/
What makes an expensive house in the San Jose area more than just a pricey bit of real estate, but instead a Silicon Valley luxury home? How is high end real estate different from the rest of the market? When is a property not just a home with land, but an estate?
In other parts of the U.S., spending $1,200,000 may fetch a 4000 square foot home, new construction, in an upscale gated community with country club amenities such as a golf course, tennis courts, and more. Here, that same $1,200,000 will procure an entry to mid-level single family home in many parts of Santa Clara County. It won’t necessarily be a Silicon Valley luxury home.
Luxury connotes a combination of qualities, features, and amenities. And it includes pricing (relative to the nearby market), condition, land, design.
Pricing Luxury Homes in Silicon Valley: What Do They Cost?
Expensive Silicon Valley homes are not necessarily luxury homes. Depending on the city or town, the price tag could be higher or lower. For instance, a fabulous house on a large lot in Gilroy’s Eagle Ridge might sell for 1/3 as much as the identical type of home, land and neighborhood found in Saratoga, Monte Sereno, or Los Gatos, or Los Altos, if a similar home happened to be available. Generally, though, luxury homes could cost as little as $1,000,000 or so in some parts of Silicon Valley or in neighboring counties, but in most parts of Silicon Valley, a true estate type property will be valued at $2,000,000 or $3,000,000 or more. In some areas, such as Palo Alto, that $2 million doesn’t go too far and the home you can purchase at that price tag may need major updating – or it could be “land value”. For our purposes today, we’ll use $2 million as the bottom number for estate properties, but it may or may not be the case in some areas.
South County is rich with wineries! Recently my husband and I visited one of them, Guglielmo, when we were in Morgan Hill for some friends’ pool party. Jim hadn’t been to Guglielmo Winery in decades, and somehow I’d never been there before at all.
It has a nice mix of the “hark to yesteryear” items, both outside and in, with more contemporary decor and landscaping. It’s a very nice blend of old and new.
Inside, there’s a rustic, rambling set of rooms that serve as both 2 wine tasting stations and a really fun store full of kitschy, funny, and useful things. Close to the cash register was the area for white wines, and in the back was another for reds. We were at the former. The wine we tried was delicious and we came away with two bottles of the Tre and one of a sparkling wine.
In summer, the winery provides free music at its Vine and Vibes series on Wednesdays. There are other events too – check out the schedule at their site: http://www.guglielmowinery.com/events/
The winery is located at 1480 East Main Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA. There’s a small tasting fee of $5 per person as of this writing (July 2016), and the fee is refunded if you purchase $25 worth of wine or more. http://www.guglielmowinery.com/
Here are some images of the winery when we visited on July 2nd. Enjoy!
Yesterday Jim and I attended the Los Gatos Creekside Sports Park kickoff celebration (will nearly touch Vasona Lake County Park and is just off of University Avenue) and as we often do, drove east on Blossom Hill Road to get home. Straight ahead of us, hanging over south San Jose and Santa Teresa and extending north, was a huge and darkened cloud. Smoke? Smog? Rainclouds?
We drove up Harwood Road and to the top of Harwood Court to get a better view of it. It did look like it started in south San Jose or further south than that. Some hikers were trekking up the challenging hill and we asked them if they knew if it were a fire. “Can’t smell it,” one replied “so it must be smog – just awful!” Smog, though, tends to dissipate from side to side and not hang together so tightly as what we saw.
View from Harwood Court in Los Gatos of the smokey skies created by the Cal Fire “controlled burn” in south county
We flipped on KLIV, the San Jose based AM radio station (channel 1590) that best covers local news & traffic, and learned right away that it was a controlled burn. This morning I googled the fire and learned that it’s a 2 day burn at part of Henry Coe State Park, overseen by Cal Fire, with more scheduled for today.
The Morgan Hill Times reports that “The prescribed burn is part of the ‘Western Zone Complex’ controlled fire in the remote area of the park. The fire will take place on the Middle Ridge Trail off Hobbs Road, about eight miles northeast of Morgan Hill, according to Calfire fire prevention specialist Chris Morgan. ”
My Sereno Group real estate colleague and friend Lorraine Combs has some extremely gorgeous land listed for sale in Morgan Hill. Many of us have the dream about building a home somewhere in Silicon Valley and getting more space – and this south county acreage is so scenic that I really wanted to showcase it here. It’s a nice piece of the California heritage with views of the hills, trees and water all in one place. What a great place to enjoy horses or a vineyard!
So, take a few minutes, enjoy the photos and details, and see if these riverside lots might be just the thing for you or someone you know!
Two Riverfront Morgan Hill Lots For Sale: Some General Information
These two properties were recently subdivided, so share the same address, which is 12575 Watsonville Road, Morgan Hill. The area is close to town and also near to the wine growing region.
One of these parcels is just shy of 3 acres and the other is 3.45 acres. They are contiguous so two lots can be purchased together if you are looking for an even larger piece of land to call your own.
Both properties front the beautiful Uvas River, which runs year round. And both are equestrian properties, zoned for horses.
Seller financing is possible for your real estate purchase – this is an enormous plus, especially given the current lending climate!
A well is shared between the two addresses. One lot has a P, G & E pole and the other has an electric easement.
One of the parcels has an existing structure and a new house can be built on that site, which includes views of the Uvas River. The other does not currently have a building on it but does enjoy frontage on the river (and plenty of level land upon which to build).
Please note: do not go to these listings without an appointment! It is imperative to call and make an appointment first to view this prime land (contact info will be listed at the end of this article).
Now let’s go over each parcel individually. (more…)
TheWilliamson Act, also known as the California Land Conservation Act, was passed by our California Legislature in 1965 in order to encourage rural & agricultural lands to remain undeveloped longer. When land owners enter into a contract under the act, they benefit from lower property taxes, which are based on the property’s current use, rather than paying market value based tax rates. In exchange, the property is to remain undeveloped and continue to function the same way for the duration of that contract. The contracts run for 10 years and are automatically renewed unless the farmer or rancher cancels it.
Why does the Williamson Act matter?
According to the Committee for Green Foothills, there are 362,000 acres of land in Santa Clara County under the Williamson Act (that article appears to have been written in 2003, so the numbers may have changed a little since then). Much of it is in the east foothills of east San Jose and the south county areas near Morgan Hill and Gilroy, but there are patches of it in Los Gatos, Saratoga, Cupertino, Almaden Valley, Blossom Valley and throughout Silicon Valley. The tax breaks make it possible for many farmers and ranchers to stay in business and not feel forced to sell their land for development. If they were paying “market rate” taxes, it would not be long before most or all of our rural and agricultural uses gave way to housing and other development.
Christie's International Real Estate Sereno, Los Gatos, CA 95030 408 204-7673 Mary@PopeHandy.com License# 01153805
Clair Handy, Realtor
GREEN
Christie's International Real Estate Sereno 214 Los Gatos-Saratoga Rd Los Gatos, CA 95030 ClairHandy@sereno.com License# 02153633
Mary & Clair sell homes throughout Silicon Valley: Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, and Santa Cruz County. with a special focus on: San Jose, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Campbell, Almaden Valley, Cambrian Park.
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How is the Morgan Hill real estate market? Signals indicate it is an active seller’s market, but noticeably milder than other parts of the county. Overall the wild extremes of last spring are no more. Below are some quick points from our RE Report (link below).
Last Father’s Day, mid June 2017, we trekked to South County to do some fruit picking and fruit tasting at Andy’s Orchard in Morgan Hill. I highly recommend it, though the website for Andy’s Orchard says that their cherry harvest has been smaller than usual this year. They are again offering this event on Father’s Day 2018, but do check their website (see link below) to make sure that the tour you want is not sold out.
South County is rich with wineries! Recently my husband and I visited one of them, Guglielmo, when we were in Morgan Hill for some friends’ pool party. Jim hadn’t been to Guglielmo Winery in decades, and somehow I’d never been there before at all.
